Prefilter Question

[decoy50]

I use prefilters on the intakes of all my filters, just a sponge that will slide over the intake(which BTW if you aren't doing this, go buy one immediately. It will keep your filter 10 times cleaner) and everytime I clean it during a water change, I get a bunch of food particles/crap free floating in the tank when the prefilter is removed. Does anybody have any clever trick to keep this from happening?

The only ideas, I've come up with are pretty messy. Sliding a cup/plastic bag over the sponge before it is removed is the best I've come up with. Looking for a quick solution that doesn't involve me spilling water everywhere.

 

[houie925]

Plastic bag is a good idea


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[Chub_by]

Hold a net in direction of flow.

 

[Anchovie]

Yea I'd prob just use a fry net.


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[decoy50]

Plastic bag works well, but water gets everywhere. I like the net idea, I feel kinda dumb that never crossed my mind. I'll give that a shot, and see how it does with small particles. All other tips are welcomed & appreciated.

 

[Chicxulub]

Moved to Setup/Filtration

 

[T1KARMANN]

Mmmmmmmm you say the pre filter is a great idea

Then you say that when you take it off to clean you get loads of food partials in the tank doesn't this tell you that this pre filter is keeping all the dead rotting food in the tank not in the filter where it can brake down correctly


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[decoy50]

No the purpose of a prefilter is to keep the junk out of the filter & help keep my nitrates down - its doing its job and catching everything.

I tried the net method and it worked well. Alot less messy than my bag idea. Thanks people.

 

[lp85253]

yep , net or bag or cup,all work well